Day 9 : Walking around Saint-Petersburg and the museum of Russian history

The marketplace is such a good restaurant we decided to make our way there as soon as we woke up. I received an email telling me there would be no walking tour on this particular day but to go to the meeting point tomorrow. This meant that today was a museum day!

While eating we made some researches on what museum we should attend. The Russian history museum seemed perfect to introduce us to the history and acquaint us with the Russian culture through paintings.

It is an extraordinary museum with paintings from everywhere around Russia and artists that explored the various social casts of Russia through various centuries. Paintings are one of the best way to learn about a country and a culture. An interesting fact is that every room had an old lady in charge of making sure none of the paintings might get damaged by the visitors. It seemed that as soon as we could be heard speaking French by them, we would automatically turn into high level threats. They old ladies, some of them very very very old, would be only a few centimeters away from us the whole time spent in the room and they would just stare at us intensely with that mean Russian face. They were the most threatening aspect of my entire trip in Russia. And so, we decided to start pointing paintings as a provocation – they did not like that. The museum must have offered at least 300 jobs to these old ladies.

We took a beer with a nice view on the street and a chicken sandwich as a late afternoon lunch. The Russian service isn’t great compared to other European standards. The girl explained to us that it is normal in Russia that ordering a beer can take far more than 10 minutes to receive. I didn’t mind the beer just tasted better after the wait.

We then went back to the hostel in the middle of the afternoon so I could take care of my business, answer clients email and dispatch the work. We wanted to try another typical Russian restaurant and we invited Marcella to join along and a French guy called Hadrien. By the time we got to the restaurant it was close due to the late hour, and so we ate in a Belgium restaurant.

The cost of life, food and particularly alcohol is very expensive in Saint-Petersburg.